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Republic: Now With More Serene!

Published by

tyler

August 27, 2007 in summertime, prerelease hype, horns, fuzz, toronto and tunes. 0 Comments

This Republic not what one might think. Musically: a powerhouse of a band that sits comfortably among the ranks of another Arts & Crafts borderline-white-noise electro-pop act Broken Social Scene, The Republic is the embodiment of tranquility in the notion of sensory overload.

Having matured since their debut, the newest offering is instrumentally a powerful series of cascades in the grandest sense one might think that layerings of drums, bass, guitars (three), piano, and horns/bowed instruments may produce.

In calculus everything is a matter of limits. The way each mathematical concept will approach infinity, and most importantly, the speed at which that is achieved. It’s no grand stretch to put music into these same terms, with white-noise as our aural anchor of infinitude we can think of music as growing, expanding, approaching its own limit. Yet, the idea is never to reach it, as we all know white noise is not a pleasant thing (think: your TV’s snowy cackle). It’s enough to drive a man into the outer-reaches of madness.

We’re not there though. The snow is absent as this Republic makes clever use of its cast of seven members, in a way that each participates in order to build toward that central point. Each instrument adds a proverbial floor, wall, and cathedral ceiling to the body of sound all the while keeping a steadfast harmony, a clear and decisive plotted course, and more often than not leaving some head-space for vocals.

“Humble Peasants” is the most illustrative track of the band’s direction. It picks up pace as you hear each member don their instrument and find a place in the sound until the inevitable climax (infinity it is not). I can imagine this track playing inside the cabin of the space-elevator as it launches clear through our bubble, emerging from a made-for-theatre dust cloud meant to represent the atmosphere (fainciful, yes).

Population is a fitting title for the album, especially with a track like “Present of Future End” which dawdles around one lowly voice harking unto the world until at around the 2:20 mark it erupts into a crowd. You know those musicals where everyone has the same fanciful dream, and everyone’s mind is running the same circle of inner monologue as their feet run imagined dance-steps around the drabness of their everyday lives? Yeah, it’s just like that, only with drums and fuzz and horns.

The album is a hard thing to describe, but as Ryan Lenssen remarks (in one awesome article):

“[Population’s] juxtaposition between the music and the lyrics is just so grand,” Lenssen says. “The music itself sounds almost—almost—happy. People will look at the cover and see all the beautiful graphics but then they’re going to get into the philosophy of the record and that is much, much darker.” “If people were to truly understand what we were really saying and all of the musical choices and why they were there…this is way more calculated. This is murder in the first degree. This is malicious, unbridled anger and I think we’re sort of a little insane because of the way we present it. We are that scary clown. We are stabbing you in the front and smiling, brushing your cheek, saying ‘Isn’t it lovely? Isn’t it lovely?’”

It is, it really is.

listen (headphones recommended):
The Most Serene Republic - Humble Peasants
The Most Serene Republic - Present of Future End
The Most Serene Republic - Sherry And Her Butterfly Net

Population will land October 2nd, and A&C should like to have your back on the pre-ordering front soon enough.

Murder Mystery: The Sonic Palette of My Music Dentures

Published by

tyler

August 23, 2007 in tummy ache, indie, summertime and tunes. 1 Comment

So I just received in the mail a promo disc from Murdery Mystery. I’d been looking forward to it for a little while now, and the time spent in its snail-mail transition only served to raise my hopes even higher after one of the singles & promo tracks from their website had me hooked. “Love Astronaut” takes me back to some of the better straight-shooting unapologetic boy-girl pop, and I’d fallen in love with the 8-bit/guitar love solo so much so that seemed it was written just for me.

I was fully prepared to go flying off-the-handle with praise and resounding applause here. Something like “the horizons of my sonic palette were fully broadened by the pop sensibilities of Murder Mystery’s Are you Ready For the Heartache Cause Here It Comes” and then you know, throw in some awesome 60s references, like “Beatles-meets-Beach-Boys-meets-today’s-The-Strokes”.

So much for that. It seems the technical prowess of the members has done a number on their spontaneity, and this whole “awesome fun” that I’ve been told so much of their live shows is nowhere to be found. One thing I can’t stand in a studio production is when the director thinks it’d be swell to whitewash it, do thirty takes until it’s “perfect” and then every ounce of humanness is removed so it’s as though robots were singing to the drum machines that are playing alongside recordings of the guy that may-or-may-not have played a guitar twenty takes back. And that’s weird because I love synths and robots.

While I’d be happy to share a live video of these guys with you, and then chock it up to poor engineering & direction (Mark Dann engineer for ‘NSync was involved? ugh) I can’t seem to find anything wholly redeeming.

I don’t seem to be the only one with these sentiments: Kate over at The Glorious Hum is a little more forgiving than I am, recommending that you spread out the dosing and not take it all in one sitting, and then Matt from YANP likens it to this. I couldn’t agree more.

You may like it for what it is, and what it is may cater to your tastes for simple and highly refined pop songs, but for the whole I’d say listen to these tracks before you make up your mind, and even then: to go see them in person where the hefty weight of the producers is all but present.

listen:
Murder Mystery - Love Astronaut
Murder Mystery - Honey Come Home

And the album is on sale, if you really want it.

Tim Harrington is to Wolves, as Dan Deacon is to Candy.

Published by

tyler

August 20, 2007 in punk-revival, prerelease hype, summertime, fuzz, 'real' indie 'rock' and tunes. 0 Comments

After a loosely defined 2 year hiatus, NYC indie rock outfit Les Savy Fav (lay-SAH-vee-FAHV) is really back. As if the singles and compilation stand-ins weren’t enough to keep them in step, they’ve hit the touring circuit already a month before their record is slated for release. I’ve been waiting for this for the last 3 years, and not without good reason.

These guys have always had a vibe that is much more drenched in screaming vocals than it is in experimentalism. A sound that is distinctly idiosyncratic and imbues the same decade that gave birth to such notables as Q and Not U, and The Dismemberment Plan. One part punk, and one heavy part rock they’ve always made use of bass hooks and angular guitar work to bleed fuzz and drums around Harrington’s vocals, and the vocals (the words) are the shining point to the whole act.

The words, often a stinging air of critique for the very industry they participate in, and sometimes almost bleakly autobiographical like “Meet Me In the Dollar Bin” from Inches. “Meet me in the dollar bin” Tim pleads, “it’s a band I once was in; haven’t done much better since.” It reads as a tribute to all the artists who try and fail at the game; the lightning crashing, the day-job at the cannery, and the poor performing conditions all leave the impression of a struggling youth in the biz, “we passed and we passed, we passed out when we could”. That was probably my favourite of their last offerings, and it demanded to be on a dozen different mixtapes in the last 3 years.

Let’s Stay Friends showcases the same energy these guys had back in years prior, however modernized it is in terms of a playlist-begging pop-repeato drill-into-your-brain appeal, and laid out in the same distinct bleeding-throat vocals Tim does (that are horribly lacking among contemporaries - where is all the sensical screaming at?).

“Ragin In The Plague Age” is a new track that speaks to me, and not because I’ve been leaking from the ears or eyes or anything like that. Alber Camus’ The Plague is a book I’ve been reading on and off lately, and it concerns itself with the trails of a small town in France inflicted with the bacillus plague back in 194X. Savy Fav’s version is much less dun-dun-mysterious, and told from the eyes of a king back when kings were important. Here’s the gist: Scene one, King goes ill. Scene two, king is sacked. Scene three, the town gets trashed for lack of a solution. It is glorious, to say the least.

Right up until the release date of September 18th, there’s a video contest going on that is as humble as it is enticing, and judging from the looks of it there are some pretty awesome entries going up as we speak. Win 1000 clams and a trophy as they invite you to dress like them, go wild, and most importantly to get it on tape - this ain’t no sunday-morning dress-up, unless of course you like that sort of thing, power to you man.

listen up:
Les Savy Fav - Meet Me In The Dollar Bin (from Inches)
Les Savy Fav - Raging In The Plague Age (don your hazmat suit!)
Les Savy Fav - What Would Wolves Do? (awesome 80s drum machining)
Les Savy Fav - The Equestrian

You can pre-order Let’s Stay Friends over at Newbury Comics (with a limited edition autographed booklet that you should be too punk to care about).

When all of a sudden Neil Young drives past and gives you the finger.

Published by

tyler

August 6, 2007 in lo-fi, not-summertime, wordy, summertime, folk, fuzz and tunes. 3 Comments

French Quarter makes music that is sparse, emotional, and foot-tappingly rhythmic all at the same time.

In this one recording I came across, they were apparently playing live in the alleyway behind the Elna Rae house, and that is not just the location, but also what the recording is called; it was recorded and released by one avid fan to a private music tracker which has since been buried.

The title becomes all the more appropriate once you hear it; and it starts to dig under your skin only after you hear the ambient accompaniment in the form of animals and quiet crowd sing-alongs. There were two dogs that began barking scarcely into their second song and some awkward laughter ensues. He then asks “should we wait for the dogs, or keep going?” and to that comes two crowd responses “no, keep going… play louder,” and as he does the dogs seem to fade into the mix like they were somehow an integral part of the set.

This band is really just one man, Stephen Steinbrink, who describes his own music as “smoking Sandias and listening to In Utero while driving through New Mexico in your Volvo, when all of a sudden Neil Young drives past and gives you the finger.” I’d hate to pin it down as rooted in Neil Youngery, because that never does anyone any justice, but he does have a way with words.

There were more lyrics I wanted to share here, but after typing them out just now they lost something that I just can’t explain.

At the half-way mark on their set comes a gem no one was expecting, but to my delight he manages to twist a Bee Gees hit in ways I never thought were possible. Seriously, there was only one chuckle when Stayin’ Alive came on, and after the first verse it was clear he wasn’t trying to perk any grins. It’s as if his voice commanded something in the words which caused it to lose its 70s groove and take on a whole new meaning. It’s this very callous folksong air that distinguishes him, especially at a live setting like this.

There were no track names given, but I split the recording up into parts for you all (labeling the two cover songs). Enjoy!

listen?
French Quarter - Track 01
French Quarter - Track 02
French Quarter - Track 03
French Quarter - Track 04
French Quarter - Stayin’ Alive (Bee Gees cover)
French Quarter - Track 06
French Quarter - Harvest (Neil Young cover)

You can find him over here, at his Myspace.

In the Projects, No One Can Hear You… Dance?

Published by

matt.

August 2, 2007 in funk, loungers, tongue-in-cheek, bassbass, summertime, electropop and tunes. 0 Comments

It would be hard to say that, in the realm of T.C., we don’t occasionally dig into the funk-filled reservoirs of afrobeat. Recently, this has meant the somewhat controversial Budos Band & Kokolo, but this extends to many other bands, from Afrodizz to Fela Kuti with his Koola Lobitos Band. Usually, the genre implies a community affair, with bands that feature ever-growing numbers of people, horns & soul. But, as sometimes will happen, a band comes out of left-field so hard that we are left confused.

Project Jenny, Project Jan is one of those bands.

Put in their new LP, XOXOXOXOXO, and hit play. You’ll be confronted with “Dia De Los Ninos”, a song built upon a typical afrobeat rhythm, Spanish lyrics, a heavy chorus & a horn section that punctuates the beat perfectly. Your first reaction will probably be similar to mine and you’ll be pretty impressed by the party sound the track inspires.

“But!” I implore you. Listen closer & know this: there is no band, in the traditional sense here. Yes, we have a vocalist (Jeremy Haines) but all the music is due to the work of one samplin’ electronic virtuoso, Sammy Rubin. So, we don’t have a Jan, don’t have a Jenny, don’t have any instruments… And, somehow, we are left with one of the funniest, most bizarre tongue-in-cheek white-boys do afrobeat dance funk albums I have ever heard.

He also does vocals. And it just gets weirder. The second track features suspiciously plucked strings over tin can rhythms. “Baby’s” begins with the sound of a computer dying before busting out with Fruity Loops style beats & Jeremy’s raps. “Games” is a funky hip-hop track dedicated to, you guessed it, games, with the lyrics referencing everything from Clue & Battleship to Super Mario & Gran Turismo. I don’t know what we got here but it sure is all over the place.

What it is is probably the funnest album I have heard in a while. On almost every track, I couldn’t help but grin - either from the ridiculous lyrics or the sweetness of the Project’s beats. Seriously, this album is worth a few spins just to hear the extent to which these guys will push the envelope.

As such, I must commend the band. When I first heard that it was just a dude with a computer alongside a vocalist… I had no idea it could come together so well. But, somehow, they have managed to bring it all home & I can just imagine that it would be a riot to see ‘em live.

work on yer dance:
Project Jenny, Project Jan - Dia De Los Ninos.
Project Jenny, Project Jan - 320.
Project Jenny, Project Jan - Train Track.

Project Jenny, Project Jan have a digital home. XOXOXOXOXO drops on August 14th from Might Records and can be preordered from Amazon.

Dan Deacon Mix 86!! (no not the year)

Published by

tyler

August 2, 2007 in frenetic, mixtape special, laserz, psych-freakout, summertime, electropop and tunes. 2 Comments

In accordance with our unanimous stance (ahem: infatuation) for Sirry Deacon, it was really only a matter of time before this happened. We’re not the only ones with an insatiable hunger for absurdist electro-pop, are we? I think not.

And since, you know, we’re all about feeding the poor starving indie children, so as to keep them off drugs, the streets, and away from the nasties, I thought it’d be well worth it to bring back the golden oldies of Dan.

We’re taking you back, way back before Spiderman of the Rings, and here I present you with a time warp, a paradox if you will, for what it is called it is not. Behold the bad photoshopping & yummy tunes!:

[deacon mix 86]

Dan Deacon Mix 86!! (no not the year):

1. My Name is Robert - [from Silly Hat vs. Eagle Hat]
2. Never Do That (Mars) - [from Meetle Mice]
3. Song for Dina - [from Meetle Mice]
4. I Have AIDS - [from Meetle Mice]
5. Moses vs. Predator - [from Acorn Master]
6. The Adventures of Mr. Bumbershine - [from Meetle Mice]
7. Ohio - [from Twacky Cats]
8. My Own Face is F Word - [from Meetle Mice]
9. Big Big Big Big Big - [from Acorn Master]
10. Junior High Band With Trucks & Dogs - [from Silly Hat vs. Eagle Hat]

Clocking in at 33:25 total, it makes a nice short & sweet electro-dose of a mix (recommended on headphones! or just really, really loud). Enjoy!

Also, if you like these songs then chances are you’d enjoy the EPs, but after my own click-clicking around the ‘nets, the only buy link I could find was for Acorn Master, (don’t bother trying at Dan’s own site, apparently his DIY store is borked), BUT Twacky Cats is being generously offered in its entirety (with high-res album art) for free over at Comfort Stand.

Bees, Doin’ the Left Foot Stepdown

Published by

tyler

July 31, 2007 in uk, 70s, the brits, summertime, psychedelia, 60s and videos. 0 Comments

It’s a fact! In ancient times, the bandit populus of India would use something like this to guard their mountains of treasure. Bet’cha didn’t know that.

–

[the bees - octopus]

So I may have missed the love train on this one by some few weeks, but it seems my own love pact was sealed when these first keys rang out to the tune of 1960 on my home stereo.

My summer has been, musically, a pleasurable time-warp through decades past, and thankfully there have been a number of bands doing it so well. On the side of IDM, Caribou’s Andorra and Pepe Deluxe’s Spare Time Machine carried their weight through the trodges of the psychedelic decades by pairing up some quality riffs with some equally quality beats. The rock side of the coin has been filled out in part by The Black Lips & Golden Animals (and as pointed out, one’s a little grungier than the next). I’d recommend going back and revisiting them one by one if you have to.

It’s Western, it’s psychedelic, it’s The Yellow Submarine, and I might even have to concede this as the best song of 2007:

In our world where most upstarts forget the importance of cohesion, the seemingly implicit talent of The Bees allows them to keep within such a broad set of bounds, going everywhere on Octopus from south-western folk on “Love in the Harbour,” to bass-culture dub crossed with The Beatles on “Left Foot Stepdown,” to unapologetic reggae on “Listening Man,” to a brass section that just won’t quit on “Got to Let Go,” the proverbial aural glue is stuck, and as it is, coming from this Isle of Wright sextet of multi-instrumentalists, by no means do these boundaries feel like an overextension, but rather they feel like a treat. The album is candy coated in chocolate wrapped in candy foil.

mp3:
Band of Bees - Left Foot Stepdown
Band of Bees - (This Is For The) Better Days

Grab yer own Octopus over at Amazon.

A Day at the Office, Part Two (the Go! Team).

Published by

matt.

July 30, 2007 in bassbass, mashed, lo-fi, funk, 80s, summertime, gleeful, jangle-pop, fuzz, horns, hippity-hop and tunes. 1 Comment

So, the coffee is starting to wear off. The drowsiness I’ve been valiantly fending off starts taking cheap shots. The ambiance of the Green EP starts to wear thin. I need to wake up, & with godspeed, dammit.

Luckily, for my mood, my work & my inner critic, I brought the new Go! Team LP, Proof of Youth, with me for just this circumstance. It is, in all seriousness, auditory caffeine.

The album jump-starts with the track that got us ridiculously excited back in June, “Grip Like a Vice”, with its awesome 80’s raps layered over badass bass, cheesy synths, sirens, hand claps & - I’m sure - skipping ropes. It is an explosion of summer fun.

And so, we waited with baited breath… Could the full-length carry this vibe over an extended period of time? Would it even be possible to maintain such momentum - especially when one considers the fact that Proof of Youth opens with “Grip Like a Vice”?

I am happy to report that, yes. The entire album is winning-free-candy style awesome. Hell, just look at these guest spots: we got friggin’ CHUCK D on “Flashlight Fight”, the Rapper’s Delight Club, Bonde do Role’s Marina Ribatski and, no joke, the Double Dutch Divas. Even the track listing epitomizes the party in party album.

The album jumps between fuzzed out, over-excited hip-hop dance parties to more down-tempo, Charlie Brown style meanderings… which, while the later may sound a bit boring in comparison, serve as perfect interludes, bringing together the album like a simple bread during a wine sampling.

It saddens me that I cannot share with you anything more than my excitement about this album, as the band’s label has requested that we not post any mp3s from the record. That being said, you can find some samples over at the band’s myspace page.

The album hits store in September via Sub Pop. You can get updates from the band’s official site ‘cuz this party ain’t restricted to no block.

With Ambience So As As Paper

Published by

tyler

July 30, 2007 in bassbass, house-special, dronez, summertime, idm, hypnotic and tunes. 1 Comment

Today is very much an ambient day.

When I think on genres, and I think of them fondly, one that always comes up in my iPod playlists is of ambient. Its ability to squeeze into so many different rooms, situations, moods is what characterizes the vibe, and its conception dates back to Brian Eno’s imagining of the idea in the 1970s (perhaps most notably with Music for Airports).

Music is a social catalyst. If you take your typical university party, and break it down into elements you’re left with three main components: drugs, people, and music. Often the best parties have the most popular music, which is why where we’re from, you won’t see a party on Reid go without the Chili Peppers or Bob Marley. It’s a strange brew to be sure, but they both carry the same weight in this sub-culture and since they’ve been listened to so very many times by everyone in attendance, they are so easily tuned-out, left to become part of the heightened blend of sensations that is the party.

I believe it is precisely that kind of mentality that breeds ambient music, only instead of going for the brain-dead approach, it tries to garner a translucency on the first listen. What that means is there still is something there you haven’t heard, but you can choose to listen for it or completely ignore it; go back and forth. It allows a room to go without intermittent silences, and is a conversation piece that can be used to pick up and go somewhere else because it’s so effortlessly overridden by conversation (or any other activity). Even as a solo listening experience it can take your mind places, or simply accompany it; like the concilatory rub of a kitten.

Enough genre blather though. What’s important is that with the artists that sprout up from these roots, I can get especially excited by artists like Paper, who, with their debut As As were able to maintain the genre’s opaque nature even while layering so much electronic noise, and folding jazz drums & post-rock guitar into the mix.

[paper - as as]

I especially like tracks like “Love,” which is so obviously built for headphones, with synth-in-brass drones that completely submerge one ear, leaving the other side of your brain to thread everything else into a whole picture. It’s hypnotic, in a way. The nerves are laid by its repetitive oompa-synth, and the spine is built on vocals and violin, making for a decisively fleshy track. And, while I usually find something irking about most sequencing in this genre (the artists tend toward formula, and it reflects that), here it’s a little different; the follow-up to that fleshy “Love” drone is “Underground,” a rhythmic drum-laden, mellow acid-bass track that is as much Caribou as it is Eno.

It continues in that fashion, and further down the line its most break-out attempt from being pinned down is with “Mountain” in all its drum & bassy goodness. Again… Caribou? Yes… yes. The title track “Boy” is almost just as pleasant, including some mysterious female guest vocals. It would seem that even if you’re the kind of person with a mind like a ninja, deciding to go out with this on a solo listening adventure, this album won’t fail to keep you on your toes, or can play to the knives & forks, so to speak, and be some easy-go dinner atmosphere.

On a final note, I discovered that the two lone members, Aaron & Adrienne are also part of a group called Landing. A group who, despite the larger cast and somewhat lo-fi recordings, carry a similar vibe (no doubt because of the Snow brothers’ spearheading there as well). It seems after reading the Landing news page though, that sentence may need to be past-tense. Paper may be more than just a side-project of the Snows in the future.

mp3:
Paper - Mountain
Paper - Boy

see also:
Paper get some Love over at Obscure Sound.

As As is out now, and can be had direct from States Rights for a mere $12.

Give Yerself a Bonus! End of July Edition

Published by

tyler

July 27, 2007 in bonus, rehash, summertime and tunes. 1 Comment

When we last presented you with goodies, it was as a condensed effort to sum up the first half of 2007 of ALL the goodies that were out there. A valiant effort, and you should catch up if you missed it the first time around. Now, surely we missed a few then, and there’s no question more have risen from the depths since. Because both those conditions transpired, we decided to brew up another batch of goodies just for you, awww.

Don’t Stop Believing (Journey cover)
Badly Drawn Boy on the b-side of his latest limited 7″ does a live cover of what may be the only Journey song I know (and love), as he did a number of times on his last tour.

The Heinrich Maneuver (Epworth remix)
Paul Epworth does an awesome job giving this track a dance-floor rhythm, and some wonderful glitch-electronic appeal. It is glorious.

Crystal Castles Save Christmas
Another wiry treat from the Crystal Castles duo: this time they tackle the Grinch with their Atari 5200! Can you hear the elves slaving over the very toys that graced your tree? I sure can.

Smile (acapella)
It may not hold a candle to The Go! Team’s acapella of Grip Like a Vice, but it’s still a treat to hear Lily Allen’s voice all by its lonesome.

Now a note on the next tracks: ever since Guitar Hero 2 I’ve been lusting after two tracks by two different bands featured under the in-game Bonus Tracks section. One was Made in Mexico’s “Yes We Can” which, for all its bizarreness and change-ups in the all-too-short 4 minutes, just leaves me with chills.

The other is Freezepop’s “Less Talk More Rokk,” a track of pure aural bliss when that staircase synth riff hits & repeats. Now, I had a chance to give a good, hard listen to Freezepop’s Future Future Future Perfect only to find that they completely dropped the ball on the album version of the track. Here I am, thinking it’s all about the rokkin’ when all they do is blather over the riff, completely drowning out its awesomeness. What gives? Anyway, for the last bonus, I present you with the two best GH2 tracks:

Less Talk More Rokk (GH2 version)
Yes We Can (GH2 version)

Courtesy of Freezepop & Made in Mexico.

I’m curious, what were your most-played Guitar Hero tracks? Give a shout in the comments! But please, for the love of god don’t say it was “Mother”.